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Old 01-09-2005, 06:59 AM   #1
ksmj
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Step by step setup wireless PCMCIA card


Hi,

I need some help setting up my wireless PCMCIA network card. The model is Aztech WL500PC, IEEE802.11b PC Card.

I am not expert in linux so i am not too sure exactly how to add new hardware in after the system has been setup. so i hope someone can give me some instruction on what am i suppose to do to at least try to get it to work under fedora core 3.


thanks


Kel
 
Old 01-09-2005, 07:27 AM   #2
TuxFreak
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Do you know which wireless chip it uses? If it uses an Atheros get MadWifi or if it uses a Ratech (I beleive thats the name) get the RT2400 drivers.. Both projects can be found at SourceForge. There are many other wireless drivers for the different chips but I have only used the Atheros and Ratech and some other one in the past. After you download the drivers as a .tar.gz usually extract it and then go into terminal/konsole and change to the directory where all the extracted files are and then usually go

./configure
make
make install


Thats just the basics theres usually a readme file included so read that. Also, you will probably need your kernel source installed in order to compile the drivers, if you don't have that, u can use yum or download an RPM. After you have done the commands make and make install and dont have any errors you can usually reboot and onreboot the kudzu hardware (something like that I don't remember off the top of my head the name of it) will say ___________ wireless card has been detected and then it asks you to configure it or you can use the option thats generally there for like auto detect. Then click OK and log in and hopefully when you log in it should all be working. You can type iwlist to list all your wireless networks found and if theres no other networks other than your own within reach it will usually connect to it right away, or at least it does for me, but if you use WEP keys or any other advanced security it will be a bit different.


Did this help? Basically find out what chip it uses and if its one of the 2 I listed just download them and if its different just google "Linux <chip name>" and something should pop up. Good luck.
 
Old 01-09-2005, 10:28 PM   #3
ksmj
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o ic.

so that's all that I need to do?
ok, i guess first of all i will have to find out what chipset it uses then.
How can i find out which chipset it uses? I will try the company website as it didn't say
anything about the chipset on the wireless card itself.

so in general, that's what you have to do when installing new hardware?
If the hardware is not detected, is that mean the driver is not present?

thanks

Kel
 
Old 01-09-2005, 11:12 PM   #4
ksmj
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This is what i get from the customer service regarding chipsets on this wireless card. Can someone please tell me which drive i should use?

Code:
Below is the chipset information for the WL500PC:
Agere Systems Hermes2 WL60010 WLAN MAC 
Agere Systems Theseus N4080 WLAN ISM Baseband Processor 
Agere Systems Ruby W4050 ISM Band Transciever 
256KB EEPROM

i found a driver, not sure if is ok, is by agere systems, http://www.agere.com/mobility/docs/w...22_abg.tar.gz, and i know it is ok for Hermes2 WL60010, so i try to install it, but it says

Code:
In file included from /lib/modules/2.6.9-1.681_FC3/build/include/linux/module.h:23,
                 from ../include/static/linux/module.h:6,
                 from ../include/pcmcia/k_compat.h:61,
                 from ../include/wireless/wl_version.h:162,
                 from ../include/hcf/hcfcfg.h:797,
                 from ../hcf/fw_h2.c:28:
/lib/modules/2.6.9-1.681_FC3/build/include/asm/module.h:59:2: #error unknown processor family
../hcf/fw_h2.c: At top level:
../hcf/fw_h2.c:4468: warning: missing braces around initializer
../hcf/fw_h2.c:4468: warning: (near initialization for `fw_image_infocompat[3].var_rec[0]')
make[1]: *** [wlags49_h2_cs.o] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/kelvin/pcmcia-cs/wireless'
make: *** [wlags49_h2_cs] Error 2

what is the likely problem there?

I am using an AMD Athlon Mobile processor 2600+.


thanks


Kel

Last edited by ksmj; 01-10-2005 at 02:15 AM.
 
Old 01-10-2005, 01:07 PM   #5
TuxFreak
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Yes, when the device doesn't work it means the driver isn't included with that distribution release your installing, or you havent configured the device yet, or theres a hardware conflict. In GNOME, there is a hardware browser which lists all of the components.

Here is the only resource I have found so far for that wireless chip.

http://www.modem-help.com/chipsets.p...=119&nbd=13279

If that doesnt work also try NDIS wrapper to run the Windows driver

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/
 
Old 01-10-2005, 09:30 PM   #6
FLOODS
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I went the NDISwrapper route.

Download the windows driver file, unzip it into a folder, and (after ndiswrapper is installed, of course) run ndiswrapper -i /path/to/inf/file and if it works, you can either ndiswrapper -m or make a script as I did that loads the driver before loading the wlan0 settings.

To install NDISwrapper, you need to have your kernel headers installed. Just read the README and INSTALL file and you should be pretty well set.
As with any installation, always read the README and INSTALL file. it can answer a lot of questions and/or specific problems.

EDIT: If you'd like to go the script route, I can tell you the directions. loading ndiswrapper in modprobe.conf is a lot easier, but I wasn't satisfied because during boot, it messed up my pretty text

Can't post a lot more right now. Getting late and I have to be up early.. I'll check tomorrow if you have success/problems

Last edited by FLOODS; 01-10-2005 at 09:32 PM.
 
Old 01-10-2005, 10:59 PM   #7
ksmj
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thanks

thanks guys, i have no luck getting that driver that i've mentioned install but i am quite sure from sf that it is working with my chip. For some reason it just won't compile.

Anyway, i will give the two suggestions a try, and i will report back once i've tried it. thanks
 
Old 01-14-2005, 07:47 AM   #8
ksmj
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hi guys,

few questions

1) will i be able to see the wireless card before i can get a correct driver for it? if yes, how do i find it?


also, for FLOODS, can you please give me a sample of the script that you've mentioned?

I have one eth0 which is working and once i have the wireless card work, how do i get the computer to use the wireless one
instead of the eth0 (well what i want is to use whichever is available, mostly if one is connected the other is not).


thanks


Kel

Last edited by ksmj; 01-14-2005 at 11:28 PM.
 
Old 01-14-2005, 02:37 PM   #9
TuxFreak
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1. No, if you were able to see it the device would generally work. Drivers tell the Operating System what the device is and how to use it basically.

2. Havent heard of it
 
Old 01-14-2005, 11:12 PM   #10
ksmj
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in the instruction of ndiswrapper installation, it asks me to use lspci to find out some numbers for the device.

So what am I suppose to do to get those information?

by the way mine is a pcmcia card, does this apply? does this ndiswrapper work for that?


Code:
You need to download Windows XP driver for your card. 
The list of known to work drivers is available at the Wiki entry List. 
To identify the driver that you need, first identify the card you have with 
"lspci" and note the first column (such as 0000:00:0c.0) and then 
find out the PCI ID of the card that with "lspci -n" corresponding 
to the first column of "lspci" output. The PCI ID is third column 
(or fourth in some distributions) and of the form "104c:8400". 
Now you need to get the Windows driver for this chipset. 
In the list of drivers, find out an entry for the same PCI ID and download 
the driver corresponding to it. Unpack the Windows driver with 
unzip/cabextract/unshield tools and find out the INF file (i.e., file with .INF 
or .inf extension) and SYS file (i.e., file with .SYS or .sys extension). If there 
are multiple INF/SYS files, you may look in the List if there are any hints 
about which of them should be used. Make sure the INF file, SYS file and 
any BIN files (for example, TI drivers use BIN firmware files) are all in one 
directory. Now use "ndiswrapper" tool to install the driver with

    ndiswrapper -i filename.inf

Last edited by ksmj; 01-14-2005 at 11:29 PM.
 
Old 01-15-2005, 06:06 AM   #11
TuxFreak
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ndis wrapper should work OK for PCMCIA cards. Do you have the PCMCIA service running? You can check by looking at startup when all the services are being started or just type system-config-services to see if PCMCIA is started if not, start it up.
 
Old 01-15-2005, 06:13 AM   #12
ksmj
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yes it has started up when i check it. it should be automatically started when the machine start as it is checked in the checkbox.

but i can't seems to see my wireless card when i issue the command lspci.

is there anything else i should do? You told me that i shouldn't be able to see it unless it is working right? so how can i find out those required information?


thanks


Kel
 
  


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